Calif. woman apparently burned by rocks in pocket, page 1

Calif. woman apparently burned by rocks in pocket, page

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Topic started on 17-5-2012 @ 02:28 AM by CosmicEgg

Source

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) — A woman suffered third-degree burns after what appeared to be the spontaneous combustion of rocks that had been scooped up from a Southern California beach, a fire official said. The 43-year-old woman's children collected the rocks Saturday at San Clemente Beach, and she tucked them into the pocket of her shorts, according to the Orange County Register.

How weird is this? First they spontaneously ignite, then they cause her to catch on fire and then have the audacity to fall from her pockets and continue burning, filling the house with smoke! What sort of rocks are those!? Do we have any geologists lurking here, pro or amateur? Seriously, I've never heard of any such rocks in my life.

Well, this definitely comes under the heading of "novelty". Terrence McKenna said there would be increasing novelty in 2012. He wasn't wrong.

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 02:32 AM by benrl

If i didn't know better Id say radioactive material of some kind.

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 02:32 AM by maus80

I've just recently done some random rock collecting.

Huge bet I'm not the only one eying their new rocks with suspicion right now.

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 02:51 AM by mainidh

reply to post by CosmicEgg

Hmm, well phosphorus can appear orangish in colour, and is stable while under water, so .. all I can think of is some phosphorus had been lost at sea, disposed of, and had washed up on shore, still wet. She collected it, and it dried in her pocket. In contact with the air, the phosphorus combusted.

Or some other exotic metal. But strange... Oo

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 02:59 AM by Manhater

Man that poor lady.

Maybe particles of rocks from a comet or meteorite?

I find it a conspiracy that the Fire Capt.'s Last Name is Stone.

Odds in that.

Burned by the Stone and helped by the Stone.

Yin/Yang sort of speak...

edit on 17-5-2012 by Manhater because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 03:03 AM by CosmicEgg

So white phosphorus would do this sort of thing. Why did it look like rocks and why was it lying around on a beach in CA? Where did it come from?

This is pretty crazy. This stuff is illegal practically everywhere, which means the source is most likely "official" in origin. So....what gives?

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 03:59 AM by furling

She must have told one heck of lie. The article says her pants were on fire. >.<

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 06:26 AM by watchitburn

Originally posted by CosmicEgg
So white phosphorus would do this sort of thing. Why did it look like rocks and why was it lying around on a beach in CA? Where did it come from?

This is pretty crazy. This stuff is illegal practically everywhere, which means the source is most likely "official" in origin. So....what gives?

I was thinking White Phosphorus as soon as I started reading the story, the location sold me on it.

WP is used in Sea Markers(Signal smoke for at sea). There is a lot of military training in that area. The WP can crust over protecting it from the air. The two "rocks" rubbing against each other in her pocket would be enough to compromise the crust around the WP. That stuff can burn for quite a while if only a small portion is exposed to oxygen. I have seen WP still burn after decades buried in the ground.

I would bet dollars to doughnuts it's WP.

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 02:18 PM by windword

I heard this on the news just a few minute ago, so naturally I had to come to ATS to discuss this!

The news report said that this is a "natural" occurrence, nothing to see here folks, move along. NOT!

The beach was "San Onefre State Park Beach" according to the TV news report. That just happens to be where Camp Pendleton does it's excercices, not to mention how near it is to San Onefre Nuclear Plant!

Very suspicious in my opinion.

edit on 17-5-2012 by windword because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 03:22 PM by bazzerd

maybe its the new free energy source we have all been looking for?
..but seriously...can this really happen?
just wondering

Bazzerd

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 03:29 PM by bazzerd

I think its potassium that burns..on contact with air
phosphorous burns when ignited...chemistry for me was a long time ago

bazzerd

reply posted on 17-5-2012 @ 06:50 PM by watchitburn

Originally posted by bazzerd
I think its potassium that burns..on contact with air
phosphorous burns when ignited...chemistry for me was a long time ago

bazzerd

I'm not sure about Potassium, but I am going to say no. Because if it did I would know about it.

I know for an disputable fact that White Phosphorus ignites upon contact with oxygen.

And for the other poster, WP does not occur in nature.

reply posted on 18-5-2012 @ 12:35 AM by yourmaker

sounds like the rocks just simply scraped together in her pocket igniting a spark possibly?
if they had a little bit of gas on them or some kind of accelerent it wouldn't surprise me.

reply posted on 18-5-2012 @ 01:18 AM by CosmicEgg

Well now some claim that this is probably chert, but that is used for making fire and wouldn't produce the sort of burning-in-the-pockets effect described in the article. There would have to be a great deal of gyration of the hips going on to shake them around to the extent needed to cause a spark. lol Not what one does generally while in the kitchen cooking.

Chert contains phosphorus. I can't find any images that look like the images posted here. The police officer says that the other rocks in her pocket could have been cross-contaminated by the ones containing phosphorus? What? I dunno. Wacky story all the way around. It just goes to show that you can never know all the variables in any given situation.

reply posted on 18-5-2012 @ 06:34 AM by watchitburn

reply to post by CosmicEgg

Now I'm stumped. The rocks in that video were not white phosphorus.

I got nothing.

reply posted on 18-5-2012 @ 06:47 AM by CosmicEgg

reply to post by watchitburn

No, they aren't. They look like totally harmless tumbled stones that you would buy in any shop. Pretty scary realization that the simple act of carrying stones in your pocket could disfigure you with third degree burns. Horrifying thought.

reply posted on 18-5-2012 @ 09:47 PM by CosmicEgg

Latest update says that the orange part of the stones is manmade and the stones tested only had traces of phosphorus on the surface. Surely that's not enough to create such a sustained burn as this woman suffered to her body but then still allowed the stones to continue spewing heat and smoke for some times still once they had burned their way through her clothing.

Source

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